PHOTOS: The People Of Basel As Art

Here are some of the people of Art Basel. This security guard at the Wynwood Walls is not very enthusiastic, but he's agreeable. Click through these photos to see more of the qualities of the folks who keep Miami lively.

But after witnessing, awestruck, the revelry in Wynwood this weekend, I can't help but wonder: Are the gallery hoppers and free-drink chasers who swarm streets during Art Week not part of the art experience?

At least a three-block radius from Northwest Second Avenue, between 20th and 29th streets, was crawling with Olsen-twin dress-alikes shouting in hard Miami accents, and middle-aged couples in jeans squeezed through hordes of slow-moving sartorial adventurers.

That’s not just a fashion show; it’s an exhibition on Miami’s appropriation of mainstream American culture. The way we absorb style trends displayed in the media by celebrities of every ethnicity but ours – because, face it, despite your background, “Miamian” trumps any other identity around here – even though they were not made to be worn while uttering endless “bros” and “dales,” is testament to Art Basel’s influence on us.

What is art? Is it this outfit?

While at first Basel on the beach and even Wynwood were somewhat exclusive settings, unknown to everyday “Miami people” – everyone you’d imagine Pitbull makes his music for – they have become such integral parts of Miami culture that partiers who frequented Space and Mekka two years ago now hit second-Saturday Art Walks and Basel satellite fairs for fun.

And so, Miami’s own mainstream culture shifts from the neons of South Beach to the murals of Wynwood and its surroundings. And the people become part of the art because Miami as a whole puts on a performance during Basel. We all come out.

Artist Michele Oka Doner told the Daily Beast: “[It’s] not the feeding frenzy that it was in the early years. I find it more refined. … Miami has learned how to behave at a world-class affair and still stay half-dressed.”

And isn’t that an art?

After Wynwood’s galleries closed, all that was left were parties. Northwest 24th Street, among others, boomed with the bass of various speakers blasting electronic dance music and the occasional throwback hip-hop beat. In one of the clubs, a group of about 30 took turns shuffling in the center of a circle.

I'm not particularly fond of that dance trend, nor the song that popularized it, but when enough people are shuffling, a room doesn't need a strobe light to look choppy. It's almost like watching something choreographed: Everyone participating knows when to break out, when to hoot in unison, and their movements are alike.

Also prevalent were poi dancers, one of them spinning fire in the video below. And another, maybe less artistic but equally fascinating, characteristic of Wynwood nightlife became evident through him: This is a community.

Standing on that street corner, surrounded by dozens of onlookers engulfed in the primeval pulse of hand-beaten percussion, I remembered drum circles and campfires and the hyperbolic, free-love ideals of some neo-hippie friends.

A couple kissed behind the fire dancer. The crowd cheered when he spun a complicated twist, and the drummers yelped when their beating wasn’t enough.

We were gathered across the street from Joey’s Italian Café, where valet attendants park wealthy people’s cars. We were feet away from a Miami-Dade Transit bus. We weren’t in a commune, or on a beach. We were in Wynwood!

But the performance, possibly spontaneous, was so entrancing it blurred the surroundings of its spectators. It drew them in. If I could say that much for most of the curated art I’ve seen in galleries I wouldn’t be such a fan of murals.

As I walked to my car near the I-95, this thought became clear: The crowds are an art show. Reality begins west of Northwest Fifth Avenue, or south of 23rd Street and north of 29th, where families still glare at the scandalous visitors.

Related Content

As Art Basel Miami Beach gets underway, we’re thinking about what it means to be an artist. Though many would deny being an artist, we have all probably experienced a time when we embraced the title: childhood.

We asked our staff, “What’s the first creative thing you can remember doing?” The answers prompted lots of fun conversations about early aspirations to be the next big animator, choreographer or roller coaster designer. Try it with your friends.

There’s no question that Art Basel brings plenty of people -- and their stuff -- to Wynwood. The question is: How do you keep the area clean?

Leticia Pollock is co-owner of Panther Coffee in Wynwood. She says Basel is her busiest week of the year, so she has to have more people on staff to help keep the place running smoothly – and looking tidy. But this year, Pollock noticed something else helping out: plastic yellow trash cans next to the street in front of her property.

Brazil has proved itself a global force in soccer and music, architecture and business. But there’s one area where the South American giant has yet to produce a Pelé or a Veloso, a Niemeyer or an Embraer: art.

That seems odd considering Brazil’s richly creative culture and its awesomely idyllic surroundings. Mexico can claim the marquee power of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo; Colombia has Botero. But the Brazilian art scene “is still finding its way internationally,” says São Paulo entrepreneur and art promoter Michel Serebrinsky.

Charles Soto started tattooing four years ago, after his mother died following a long illness.

“[It] was a moment in my life of desperation. I hit rock bottom," he says. "I was dead broke."

Three years later, Soto reconnected with his estranged older brother, just months before the latter died of HIV complications. His grief influenced his art with dark overtones, but also put him in the sightline of a company now displaying his work during Art Basel.

Emmett Moore is a South Florida artist through and through. He grew up in Miami and returned after college. That's when he set out to become an artist full-time. It's still early in his career but so far he's making it work: His work has been exhibited at a few art galleries, including Gallery Diet in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood.

WLRN-Miami Herald News brings Art Basel to you through our digital coverage -- and our community of listeners.

Art Basel goes beyond the Miami Beach Convention Center. In the next few days, we want to know what you think about the art, people, and events you're seeing throughout South Florida during Basel. Here are two things we're looking for: